O’Reilly’s

(Just a couple of classic Irish dirges to tide you over while reading this 'blog-entry, boyo… or girlo.)

I went to O'Reilly's this morning for "Brunch" (their term, not mine, even though they open at 8:00am ~ or 9:00am ~ on the weekend; their website says 9:00am, but when I arrived there this morning at 8:30am they were open for business and the weekend "Brunch" menu stated 8:00am; so, take your pick, Mick) on Green (figures) Street in North Beach. I have eaten dinner there a few times in the past, but this was my first breakfastary experience there. Now, I know what you are thinking (and just clean it up right now, buddy!): "An Irish pub in North Beach?" (for you out-of-towners/touristas, North Beach is the well-known quartiereitalianoin San Francisco, akin to the North End in Boston and Little Italy in New York City).

There was lots of green inside for some reason; plus, the walls are festooned with photos of Ireland and Celtic paraphernalia (I spotted at least one bodhrán[1] and one shillelagh[2] on the walls or hanging from the ceiling). They have plenty of indoor restaurant seating (and there is a full bar/pub adjoined in the next room); plus, there are a few outdoor/sidewalk picnic tables with which to dine al fresco (sorry, I have no idea how to say that in either Irish or Italian) if you like. I sat at one of the beer-barrel tables. I liked that their condiments holders are Guinness® six-pack cartons.

parklet mini-rant of the dayI parked on Columbus Avenue right behind another stupid, useless parklet (the one in front of Rose Pistola). Also, while walking around this morning, I saw about 2-3 more of these stupid parking obstructions along Columbus and other streets in North Beach. But I am so sure they are absolutely necessary as it is a full ONE BLOCK to have to walk ALL THE WAY to Washington Square Park (and in one case there is one that is directly kitty-cornered from the park). Complete rubbish! End of rant… for now.

Bay-to-Beer InterludeThis morning was the running of the 102nd Bay-to-Beer (officially know as Bay-to-Breakers). I didn't go to watch it in Golden Gate Park as in years past, but I still saw hundreds of costumed runners (sorry, I didn't see any of the "naked-people" this morning) walking to the starting line from North Beach (my most-knowledgeable server-lady told me that they normally gather in Washington Square Park and head to the starting line in large groups). This was one of the better days for it for a change; it was an absolutely beautiful, sunny morning downtown and even clear and warm(ish) over at the ocean/breakers (it's normally a 50-50 shot that it will be overcast and rainy this time of year).

There really aren't that many things that O'Reilly's offers for "Brunch" (I counted fourteen entries). They do offer several omelettes and scrambles, along with some pancakes and waffles choices. It was also interesting to see (not that it does me any good, but you lovers of the dead, decaying porky products might like this) that they do have a Full Irish Breakfast ~ two bacon rashers (and after seeing all of these meat-stuffs, you may break out into a rasher of your own), two Irish link sausages, two black pudding, two white pudding, two eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomato, and home fries or French fries. I did see something on the "Brunch Favorites" section of the menu that I knew I had to try: Vegetarian Benedict ~ on a boxty[3] cake, grilled beefsteak tomatoes, spinach, and zucchinis (sic; and while it is perfectly correct as the plural of zucchini, you rarely would see it pluralised in this instance); this comes with a side of home fries. I also had a large glass of grapefruit juice.

The boxties (I have no idea if the correct plural is "boxties" or "boxtys") served as a perfect and unique base for the Benedict; plus, as an Irish establishment, they shouldn't be caught dead using none of them crummy "English"-type muffins, Mr. O'Thomas. My friendly and ever-informative server-lady told me that they used to make these with Irish brown bread instead of the boxtys (what the heck, one of them has to be correct), which would also be a nice substitution. (I should point out here that I really wasn't tying up the poor woman with all of my inane/insane questions, as there was just myself and one other table of people there the whole time I was eating, so she had more than enough time to answer me.) The only thing I might have done differently if I were making these (and there is a much better chance that the Republic of Ireland will go back to being part of the United Kingdom than me ever making these) would have been to slice the tomatoes and zucchinis (see, here it makes sense in the plural) a little thinner, as the entire thing was a bit too thick and unwieldy. The home fried potatoes were very good, too, and made with lots of julienned onions and (red and green) bell peppers.

O'Reilly's only has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) for condimentary supplements. I was very surprised to see that there weren't even any bottles of HP™Brown Sauce on any of the tables; my friendly and informative server-lady explained to me that they do put some out once in a while, but people tend to steal them (because it's not as if you can't get these at most local grocery stores in San Francisco or anything; the idiots that steal these probably think that parklets are actually a "cute idea" and serve a good purpose). I had come prepared (with the same bottles of hot sauces that I didn't need to use yesterday morning) and used some Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce~ XX Habanero (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the potatoes and a little Nando'sExtra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on top of the two eggs.

What do you call dessert after breakfast? As I had skipped a cuppa coffee this morning with breakfast, afterward I stopped at Caffe Trieste for a Doppio Esspresso and a cannoli[4] (Really?! Herr Gates and his Microsoft Spell-Checker Nazis do not recognize, or offer a valid alternative, to this word. Must be a buncha tiramisù fans.); this one was a chocolate chip one, but I prefer the ones with the candied fruits in them instead.

"Bodhrán" is not a small "Arabian" island country. It is an Irish frame drum. It is suggested that the name means "skin tray" and a link with the Irish word "bodhor", meaning "a drum" or "dull sound" (the word "bodhra" also means "deaf").

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, uimhir dhá:

"Shillelagh" is an Anglophone (which is not another mobular company in Great Britain) corruption of the Irish "sail éille", the two words meaning "cudgel" and "leash, thong".

*(Note: I would normally put these footnotes in one size smaller font than the rest of the 'blog-entry, but I have been informed by some of the elderly readers here that it is very hard to read them at that size.

I blame it all on the 'blog-spot that provides this ~ free ~ service to me. When I first started posting here, there was a much easier to read and just a tad bit larger font to be used with the Georgia text, but about a year ago they changed the format and now the Georgia text is smaller that it was previously. I am sure it has absolutely nothing to do with people trying to read this on their stupid mobular devises or electronic tablets.

So for now I will just leave the footnotes at the same size as the rest of the 'blog-post.

Of course, I am putting this parenthetical explanation in the smaller font and it will probably go unnoticed by the same people/person.)